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Cognitive Psychology

Claremont Colleges

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

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Missiology

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Recovered Memories And Accusations Of Sexual Abuse: A Review Of Scientific Research Relevant To Missionary Contexts, David R. Dunaetz Jan 2014

Recovered Memories And Accusations Of Sexual Abuse: A Review Of Scientific Research Relevant To Missionary Contexts, David R. Dunaetz

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Childhood sexual abuse of missionary children is a tragedy that mission organizations are seeking to prevent. A second tragedy concerns missionaries falsely accused of sexual abuse. Psychotherapy that generated false memories of sexual abuse was common in the 1980s and 1990s and still continues to some degree today in Christian circles. This chapter reviews scientific evidence that such false memories exist and provides guidelines that Christian organizations may use to help sort true memories of childhood sexual abuse from false memories of childhood sexual abuse.